Friday's Lead Letter: Tax plan would hardly drain the swamp in D.C.

Times-Union reader

Thursday

Nov 30, 2017 at 6:25 PM

The Republican tax proposal will double tax the working middle class in order to give children of the very rich an unneeded tax break.

Your children will pay no estate tax for up to $3 million in assets that you leave them. That should cover most of us in the middle class, and it provides the same $3 million tax free benefit for children of the very rich..

The Republican tax proposal would eliminate the estate tax on any amount above $3 million, because it is seen by some as a double tax.

Obviously, it is only the children of the very rich who will benefit from this proposed estate tax reduction.

NOT A MIDDLE-CLASS TAX CUT

Simultaneously the Republicans tax proposal would eliminate the state sales tax deduction on federal income to be taxed, which the working middle class uses to avoid double taxation every year.

In short, the Republicans want to add a double tax on the working middle class to eliminate a perceived double tax on children of the very rich. This is typical of the whole proposed Republican tax plan, which is being falsely marketed as a middle class tax cut.

All of the Republican-proposed individual tax cuts are temporary, but all of the proposed corporate tax cuts are permanent.

The huge proposed corporate tax cuts will create long-term massive deficits that will increase the probability of future reductions in Social Security and Medicare benefits — if not their elimination.

Given that many corporations have already eliminated employee pensions, the Republican tax proposal will leave many unable to afford retirement.

The tax plan being proposed by the Republicans is a middle-class rip-off to help their campaign donors — the very rich and the corporations.

It would not drain the swamp.

It would fund it.

Phil Scanlan, Amelia Island

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